[Editor's note: Formatting edited and diary promoted by mole333]
Human Rights In Africa [1]
5th January
By Leo Igwe
In November I traveled to the Gambia to represent the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) at the 40th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) in Banjul (November 15-29, 2006). It was my first time to participate in an event organized by this regional body. ACHPR was established in 1987 to promote and protect human and people’s rights in Africa.
For almost two decades after independence African leaders did not pay serious attention to human rights issues on the continent. They focused mainly on liberation, decolonisation, and eradicating apartheid. Hence the continent witnessed flagrant human rights abuses and violations as recorded during the regimes of Mobutu Sese Seko, Kamuzu Banda, Jean Bedel Bokassa, Idi Amin etc.
In 1979 the then OAU (now AU) Assembly Heads of State and Government took an important step in the history of human rights in Africa. They met in Monrovia and adopted a resolution calling on its Secretary General to form a Committee of experts that would draft an African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. The Committee produced a draft, which was adopted at the 1981 meeting of the OAU Heads of State and Government in Nairobi. The Charter came into force on 21 October 1986. and this date is now celebrated as an African Human Rights Day.
The African Charter provides in article 30 for the establishment of an African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. The Commission was inaugurated in 1987 in Addis Ababa, Ethipia, and now has its permanent secretariat in Banjul, the Gambia. It comprises 11 members ‘serving in their personal and independent capacity’. The Commission meets twice every year to evaluate and take stock of the human rights records of member states of the African Union Vis-‡-vis the provisions in the African Charter and in other regional human rights instruments which the aforesaid states have signed, ratified and domesticated.
Despite it laudable goals and objectives, the ACHPR is still far from being an effective regional human rights watch dog it was made to be. After almost two decades of its operations, very few Africans know that such a body exists – and exists fro them. And very little is known or heard about the Commission and its activities.
Speaking at the Opening of the 40th Session of the Commission, the Chair of ACHPR Ambassador Salimata Sawadogo blamed the Commission’s lack of performance or underperformance on "perpetual lack of funds and resources". ACHPR does not have enough funds to carry out most of its activities. Due to ‘existing resource constraints’, the Commission could not embark on many promotional and fact-finding missions. The working groups could not meet. And the Secretariat has fewer staff members.
In fact the preparations for the 40th Session ran into hitches due to lack of sponsorship. The government of the Gambia declined to host the event and no other member state was ready to host it. What other evidence do we need to show that African governments do not take human rights seriously? Is it not a shame that African states cannot adequately fund and support its own human rights body? Personally, I felt very disappointed to hear about this nonchalant attitude and apparent lack of interest by many African states in the work and activities of ACHPR.
Because I don’t see how Africa can make any headway in terms of civilization and development without human rights. But is the problem really lack of funds? I don’t think so. It is lack of political will. Many states in Africa have very poor human rights records, which they are not ready to address. So an effective and functional ACHPR is not in their interest – because that will make the Commission a torn in their flesh.
So (they thought) it is better to starve the Commission of funds and stop it from fulfilling its mandate. But at the end of the day it is the continent that suffers; it is Africa’s progress that is shortchanged; it is Africa’s future that is compromised.
Incidentally, most African states have not realized the wisdom in the opening paragraph of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that the ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world".
Most of the problems of the problems that plague the continent – poverty, hunger, disease, war, conflict, political stability etc today are traceable to lack of recognition and protection of human rights and dignity. People can only contribute to the development of any community when they are sure they will be treated with dignity and respect.
So Africa cannot achieve peace, security, progress and development without protecting and upholding the human rights of its people. Unfortunately many African leaders have continued to rob the continent of its "human rights dividend" by failing in their human rights obligations and by not supporting human rights institutions like the ACHPR. Even since the African Charter came into force, many African states have shown ‘disregard and contempt for human rights’ which have compelled some Africans to resort to rebellion or to perpetrate barbarous acts as seen in the Rwandan genocide, the Darfur crsis, the conflicts in the Great Lakes region, the wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast etc. these acts have outraged the conscience of humankind. They have undermined the growth and development of the region. Many of these wars and conflicts devastating Africa today could have been averted if there were adequate safeguards for individual rights and basic freedoms. Because protecting human rights is the most veritable, cost-effective, conflict prevention and resolution mechanism.
But African governments continue to spend a lot of their resources funding armies, importing arms, sponsoring endless peace talks, peace missions, peacekeeping troops, refugee camps, governments in exile, reconstruction and rehabilitation programs etc,
This is not to say that these peace initiatives are not useful and important. But the fact remains that a fraction of this money can be used to enhance the performance and operations of the ACHPR whose work, more than a thousand troops and all the peacekeeping missions put together, will ensure justice, freedom, sustainable peace, progress and development in the region. For instance the problem in Darfur is not just that the government of Sudan cannot protect its people but that the AU force on the ground is ill equipped and ill funded to do the job. Africa is a poor continent, so a human rights approach to peace and security will serve the region better than a militarized approach.
So African Heads of State and Government should rise up to the challenge of making the African Commission on Human and people’s Rights active and effective now.
•Igwe is the IHEU Growth and Development Committee Representative in Africa.
[2] | 
[3] | 
[4] | 
[5] | 
[6] | 
[7]